


death doesn't discriminate (it takes and it takes and it takes)

by cheese_n_macaroni



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Character Death, Complete, One Shot, Silence, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-24
Updated: 2019-11-24
Packaged: 2021-02-26 19:42:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21544135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cheese_n_macaroni/pseuds/cheese_n_macaroni
Summary: All of Camelot is silent for the first time in nearly 10 years.  (one-shot)
Relationships: Gaius & Merlin (Merlin), Leon & Gwen, Merlin & Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Merlin & Gwaine, Merlin & Gwen, Merlin & Kilgharrah, Merlin & Leon, Merlin & Mordred (Merlin), Merlin & Morgana (Merlin), Merlin & Percival (Merlin)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 163





	death doesn't discriminate (it takes and it takes and it takes)

**Author's Note:**

> Posted on ff.net under cheese and macaroni

The thing that was so unsettling about the entire ordeal was that he didn’t beg or plead or scream. He just whispered a small “I’m sorry” and hung his head, so unlike his normal, unending chatter. After that, silence.

Merlin was silent. _Arthur wasn’t. He raged and screamed and cried for hours._

He was silent when he was being led to the dungeons. _Gwaine wasn’t. He screamed at the guards, at Arthur, to let his best mate go. It was only a look from Merlin that silenced him._

He was silent when he was thrown in (and for the two days he was kept there). _Gaius wasn’t. He visited every day, begging his son to look at him, to do something._

He was silent when they led him to the pyre and tied him to it. _Gwen wasn’t. She sobbed and heaved beside Leon, unable to stand beside her husband for this._

He was silent when Arthur dropped his hand. _Leon wasn’t. He choked out a scream when he thought of the young boy who had come to Camelot near a decade ago, the young man who was being slowly killed in front of him._

He was silent when the flames licked his feet (and when they curled around his head too). _Percival wasn’t. The soft-spoken man let out a roar, dropped to his knees and cried for the man Lancelot spoke so highly of._

He was silent when Arthur dropped to his knees in anguish two weeks later when George knocked before entering his chambers. _Kilgarrah wasn’t. He razed forests in his grief, trees a-flame days after._

He was silent when Mordred joined Morgana in his righteous anger at Arthur on behalf of Emyrs. _Morgana wasn’t. She laughed, cackled, when Mordred told her everything he knew (she would never admit it, but late at night, she sobbed into her knees for her once friend.)_

Merlin was silent. No longer did his natter fill the silence between the knights. Instead the silence forced them apart, painful memories making it difficult to look the others in eye. Gaius’ chambers filled with a silence that hadn’t been known since before its youngest resident arrived. Silence filled the space between Arthur and Gwen, eventually driving them to separate chambers. Morgana’s hovel filled with a silence unlike before.

The silence that invaded Camelot, all of Albion, acknowledged that something in the world wasn’t quite right.

And that it never would be again.

**Author's Note:**

> Any tips for summaries? They are the actual bane of my existence. Also, tags.  
> (if you are gonna leave any criticism, please be constructive)


End file.
